Madison Leanne Smith died at the Onslow Memorial Hospital Emergency Department on Sunday morning after her mother brought her in for breathing problems.

“Maddie” was 6 months old.

While her family mourned during a Thursday afternoon service at Morgan Funeral Home in Jacksonville, Maddie’s body lay for the fifth day on a sterile, steel table locked in the Onslow County Morgue, which is tucked near the shipping and receiving department on Onslow Memorial Hospital’s first floor.

“Here we are, having a memorial and her body is still in the morgue,” said Smith’s grandmother, Dolores Williams of Pennsylvania. “We’re having the memorial because all the family is gathered here.”

The family’s grief has been derailed by a lack of communication and assistance from hospital staff and Onslow County Medical Examiner’s Office, Williams said.

“We went to the hospital, that was 11 o’clock (Thursday),” Williams said. “The volunteer there made a call. We were told we couldn’t see the body.”

Hospital spokeswoman Amy Sousa, however, said families typically can visit their relatives’ bodies at the morgue under the supervision of the house supervisor.

Sousa, who was working from out of town, corresponded with The Daily News on Thursday and provided updates. Early Thursday afternoon, Sousa said she was trying to find out why the body had not been released that long after the child’s death.

“In pretty much every county, when there’s a child death, there’s usually a whole investigation into the child’s death and those are reviewed usually by multiple agencies, like if there are pediatricians involved,” Sousa said. “There’s just a lot more paperwork and investigation and due process. It’s very different than when someone who is 99 dies.”

It is unclear why such an investigation — in Smith’s case — did not warrant an official autopsy, however.

About 5 p.m., the child’s body finally was released to the family, Sousa said.

Williams said the family would be seeking a private autopsy before the child’s cremation.

Medical examiners have authority over deaths involving “violence, poisoning, accident, suicide or homicide; occurring suddenly when the deceased had been in apparent good health or when unattended by a physician; occurring in ... state facilities ..., or occurring under any suspicious, unusual or unnatural circumstance,” according to N.C. General Statutes.

Sousa said emergency-room doctors seldom sign death certificates.

“The question becomes: Which doctor will sign off on it?” Sousa said. “We don’t want to add to the family’s frustration.”

A woman who would not give her full name answered the phone of Decedent Affairs Coordinator Michelle Farnell at Onslow Memorial Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Farnell did not immediately reply to messages left on that phone by The Daily News earlier Thursday afternoon.

“They died in a hospital,” The woman said referring to Maddie. “It wasn’t a medical examiner’s case.”

As to why the death certificate had not been signed, she said because the child had a “history” and other doctors would have to fill out the vital record.

Sousa said information about the details of the child’s death are not public information.

“All we’re allowed to say to you is the patient is deceased ...,” Sousa said. “We’re not allowed to say the cause of death.”

That information typically appears on a death certificate.

No such document for Madison Smith was filed at Onslow County Register of Deeds by Thursday afternoon, a clerk in that office said.

‘Miracle baby’

Maddie was born with her heart outside her body on Jan. 14 at North Carolina Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill, Williams said.

Two days later, she underwent open-heart surgery and fared well after the procedure but was dependent on oxygen after her release from Children’s Hospital in late April, Williams said.

“The sister is having a rough time,” Williams said. “She said today ‘I want another Madison.’”

Her sister is 6 years old. Smith also had a 10-year-old brother who lives in Texas and who said on Thursday that he was just thankful for the time he had to spend with her, Williams said.

“Throughout the pregnancy, my daughter was not gaining weight,” Williams said. “I said ‘OK, you’ve got to start drinking Ensure and she followed through and got the baby up to 6 pounds so she was not premature ... That’s why we called her our miracle baby.”

She said she had planned to stay two weeks on her visit to Jacksonville. The lack of information about her granddaughter’s death, however, has changed that. She said her daughter, Maddie’s mother, deserved information.

“I know I have to go home and if it’s not done properly, I can’t leave her in this turmoil,” Williams said.